From: Minh Alexander <***********************> Subject: Re Whistleblower led event on law reform Date: 19 March 2018 at 17:15:28 GMT To: Henrietta Hughes <*********************> Cc: Clare Sardari <*********************> Dear Dr Hughes, Whistleblower led event focussed on law reform Thank you for your email and for confirming that you would be happy to sponsor an event led by us. However, what we have been asking for since 22 February 2018 is clarification as follows: May we clarify if this is saying that your office will support us in running an event, but not if we seek to focus on law reform, as we have suggested? We are concerned that this straightforward question remains unanswered despite several exchanges of correspondence. Unless we receive the clarification requested, we will conclude from this that you do not intend to support any whistleblower led event that is focused on law reform. As we indicated before, we would rather not lead any event at all, if law reform is a banned topic. It is important that as whistleblower voices on your advisory group we are independent of your office. To accept your terms would compromise us. Please let us know if you decide after all to support an event focussed on law reform, at which point we would of course accept your invitation to meet and discuss details.
With best wishes, Dr Minh Alexander Clare Sardari From: "Hughes, Henrietta" <*********************> Subject: RE: Re Whistleblower led event on law reform Date: 19 March 2018 at 11:49:52 GMT To: Minh Alexander <*********************> Cc: Clare Sardari <*******************>, "Rogers, Gavin" <**********************> Dear Minh Thank you for your email of the 18 March. Dr Hughes would be happy to sponsor an event for you but in order to take proceedings forward would wish to have a conference call with you and Clare. If you could therefore provide me with a few dates that you would be available I will arrange a suitable date and time. Kind regards Jerina Brown National Guardian s Office 151 Buckingham Palace Road London SW1W 9SZ From: Minh Alexander [mailto:********************** ] Sent: 18 March 2018 08:01 To: Hughes, Henrietta Cc: Clare Sardari Subject: Re Whistleblower led event on law reform Dear Dr Hughes, Re Whistleblower led event on law reform
Further to our last email to you of 13 March we see that another proxy reply has been provided by your comms manager, who says that nothing is off the table. However, we did not discern this from his emails of 25 Jan and 27 February. In the latter he repeated his view that Law reform is not part of the office s remit. We are of course aware that your office does not control or administrate law reform. But its remit includes identifying and helping to break down any barriers to speaking up in the NHS. Defective UK whistleblowing law and its failure to protect whistleblowers is an obvious barrier to speaking up. We therefore do not understand Gavin Rogers view that law reform is not a legitimate main focus for an event supported by your office: funding an event about law reform will be difficult to justify. If you however share his view, we would be grateful for clarification about this, as requested, before further discussion. We would also be grateful for sight of your business plan in order to further clarify Mr Roger s interest in how closely the aims of your meeting align with our business plan. With best wishes, Dr Minh Alexander Clare Sardari From: "Rogers, Gavin" <*************************> Subject: RE: Whistleblower-led event Date: 16 March 2018 at 16:35:24 GMT To: "'Minh Alexander <*********************>, Clare Sardari <***********************> Cc: "Hughes, Henrietta" <*********************>, "Parkinson, Russell" <**********************> Dear Dr Alexander and Ms Sardari, I m sorry if you feel our position was not fully clarified in my email of 27th February. I think the easiest way to make sure we provide you with the
exact information you are looking for is to discuss in a teleconference at your earliest convenience. I would like to assure you that at this stage nothing is off the table and we are happy to talk about the scope of the event with you. As explained, we are keen to understand how closely the aims of your meeting align with our business plan. Would some time between 2pm and 4pm on 26th March work for you both, or 2pm on 27th March? Kind regards Gavin From: Hughes, Henrietta Sent: 15 March 2018 16:30 To: Rogers, Gavin Subject: FW: Whistleblower-led event Kind regards Henrietta From: Minh Alexander [mailto:******************** ] Sent: 13 March 2018 15:13 To: Hughes, Henrietta Subject: Whistleblower-led event Dear Dr Hughes, Thank you very much for the email from your office, below. As per our email of 27 February 2018 below, we would be grateful for a brief response to our two central questions raised in our email to you of 22 February 2018, before more detailed discussions. Best wishes, Dr Minh Alexander
Clare Sardari From: "Brown, Jerina" < <mailto:******************* >> Subject: FW: Whistleblower-led event Date: 13 March 2018 at 09:48:25 GMT To: Minh Alexander <************************> Cc: Clare Sardari <mailto:********************* >" Dear Minh Further to my email below, can you confirm whether you wish to take the opportunity to speak to Henrietta next week and also if you still require us to hold the 10 May for you proposed event. If I don t receive a response from you I will have to release the dates for other meetings. Many thanks. Kind regards Jerina Brown National Guardian s office From: Brown, Jerina Sent: 07 March 2018 11:05 To: 'Minh Alexander'; Clare Sardari Subject: RE: Whistleblower-led event Dear Minh Thank you for your email of 7 March to Dr Hughes. She feels it would be helpful to have a telephone call with you and Clare to discuss your vision and aims for the day. I can offer the following two dates: 26 March (PM) 27 March (PM) If you could indicate which date you could both be available and a contact number I will set up the call. Many thanks.
Kind regards Jerina Brown National Guardian s office From: Minh Alexander [mailto:******************** ] Sent: 07 March 2018 07:43 To: Hughes, Henrietta Cc: Clare Sardari Subject: Whistleblower-led event Dear Dr Hughes, After we wrote to you on 22 and 27 February, we received a further response from your comms manager Gavin Rogers reiterating his original refusal to allow us to lead an event supported by your Office, focused on Law reform. All the correspondence is copied below. We would be to hear from you regarding our two specific questions of 22 February 2017. With best wishes, Dr Minh Alexander Clare Sardari From: "Rogers, Gavin" < <mailto:*********************** >> Subject: RE: Whistleblower-led event Date: 27 February 2018 at 17:38:43 GMT To: Minh Alexander <mailto:************************ > Clare Sardari <mailto:***********************> Cc: Hughes, Henrietta <***********************>, "Parkinson, Russell<*******************************> Dear Dr Alexander and Ms Sardari, Unfortunately, Dr Hughes is on leave at the moment and so she will not be able to respond to you before the Conference on 6 March. In the meantime, I hope I can help clarify the situation on whether you will be allowed to lead a discussion about law reform and whether law reform
is a banned topic. Our assumption is that the event you are proposing will be led by yourselves, though as explained previously, we would be grateful if you could clarify what role you wish the National Guardian and the National Guardian s Office to take. In providing funding for the event from the NGO we need to be mindful that funding for the office is provided on the basis that it will be used to further the aims of the office. Law reform is not part of the office s remit and so funding an event about law reform will be difficult to justify. We do, though, support an event led by people with experience of speaking up and hope that you will be able to present us with proposals for an event that we can justify funding. In principle, an event that includes a discussion of law reform would not preclude us from offering funding or supporting the event, but we will need to look at your proposals in the round. As Dr Hughes said, your vision will help us a great deal. I am sure you will appreciate that we will need to justify the use of public funds in this way. Also, to note, we would appreciate your initial thoughts on the level of funding that you are seeking the NGO s budget for 2018/19 has not yet been agreed and funding for this event will need to be accommodated in our proposals. It will be helpful to discuss your proposals in more detail, but I agree the conference may not provide the best opportunity and therefore perhaps we can find another time if you can provide me with some preferred dates. Kind regards Gavin From: Minh Alexander [mailto:************************ ] Sent: 27 February 2018 07:35 To: Hughes, Henrietta Cc: Clare Sardari Subject: Whistleblower-led event Dear Henrietta, Thanks for your email.
It would be helpful if we could have a brief response to the two central questions raised in our email to you of 22 February 2018, before more detailed discussions. The issue of being allowed, or not, to lead a discussion about law reform is key. We would rather not lead an event if law reform is a banned topic. You suggest that we discuss the matter on the day of the conference however time constraints are unlikely to allow thorough consideration. We feel a scheduled meeting would be more productive. Clearly such meeting will not be necessary if the discussion of Law Reform continues to be refused on the basis that it is incongruent with the aims of your office. With best wishes, Dr Minh Alexander Clare Sardari From: Hughes, Henrietta" <************************> Subject: RE: Whistleblower-led event Date: 23 February 2018 at 09:47:28 GMT To: Minh Alexander <***********************> Cc: Clare Sardari <**********************> Brown, Jerina <**********************> Dear Minh and Clare Thanks for this. I m actually on leave until the day before the conference so it would be great to catch up with you then to discuss. I think once I have a better idea of your vision for the event we will be able to offer bespoke support to make it a great success With best wishes Henrietta From: Minh Alexander
Sent: 22 February 2018 16:56:14 To: Hughes, Henrietta Cc: Clare Sardari Subject: Whistleblower-led event BY EMAIL Dr Henrietta Hughes National Freedom to Speak Up Guardian Care Quality Commission 22 February 2018 Dear Dr Hughes Whistleblower-led event Thanks very much for the letter from your office, via Gavin Rogers, of 25 January 2018, attached We write to seek clarification of two points: 1. Regarding his comment therein: We should point out that the subject of your proposed event, legislative reform, isn t part of our remit so we must be mindful that resources that are used for this event should also advance the general aims of the National Guardian s Office. May we clarify if this is saying that your office will support us in running an event, but not if we seek to focus on law reform, as we have suggested? We are a little concerned at the assertion that seeking law reform is not in your Office s remit. You advised a year ago that you were not seeking law reform, but that is a separate issue of prioritisation as opposed to remit.
2. Regarding his comment: You asked for assistance in sending out invitations and distributing an event pack. We think that this might compromise the independence of the event so feel that invitations may be better coming from you. This seems to conflict a little with his comment: We would, of course, be happy to promote the event to our stakeholders, though any material we use for that will need to go through our normal communications quality assurance process. Gavin's refusal to assist with distribution of invitations is also is not congruent with our discussion with you on 3 November when we agreed the principle of the Office levering the cooperation of bodies by its backing of our event, thereby helping to ensure their attendance. We would be grateful to know if this agreed principle still holds good. Subject to clarification of the two points above, we will get back to you on the other points raised in Gavin's letter. With best wishes, Dr Minh Alexander Clare Sardari LETTER 25 JANUARY 2018
National Guardian s Office 151 Buckingham Palace Road London SW1W 9SZ 25th January 2018 Dear Ms Sardari and Dr Alexander, Thank you for your email just prior to Christmas and apologies for not responding sooner. Thank you for your thoughts on the proposed event, which we are very keen to support. I m sure it can be a very productive meeting and it would be good to understand what type of event you are envisaging debate, seminar, discussion, etc.? Do you have a title for the meeting yet and an agenda, and is there yet a list of those people you are looking to invite? We should point out that the subject of your proposed event, legislative reform, isn t part of our remit so we must be mindful that resources that are used for this event should also advance the general aims of the National Guardian s Office. We must also bear in mind that our business plan and budget for the next financial year hasn t been agreed and we can t make any assumptions about the continued funding of the office. Whilst we are keen to support you, if the event can t be delivered in the current financial year we cannot guarantee that funding will be available. Therefore, if it isn t possible to deliver this event before the end of March, I hope you can accept that our support will have to remain contingent on us securing appropriate resources. I d be grateful if you can confirm that delivery of the event before the end of March isn t possible and that you are content to proceed on the basis that the National Guardian s Office budget for 2018/19 hasn t yet been agreed.
As this will now be a standalone event, we will also need to be flexible about dates. Unfortunately there is very limited room availability at 151 Buckingham Palace Road, and demand on our larger meeting rooms is high so it would be helpful if we can identify some potential dates as soon as possible so that we can negotiate access to a suitable room. Please note that our policy is not to pay speakers at events so, for the sake of clarity, we d be grateful if you can confirm that you would not be looking to the National Guardian s Office to fund this aspect of the meeting. We would, of course, be happy to promote the event to our stakeholders, though any material we use for that will need to go through our normal communications quality assurance process. You asked for assistance in sending out invitations and distributing an event pack. We think that this might compromise the independence of the event so feel that invitations may be better coming from you. On the point of independence, it would be helpful to know your expectations of the National Guardian in relation to this event, and attendance of National Guardian s Office staff. The National Guardian would, of course, be delighted to attend the meeting as a delegate and I d be happy to explore how else she, or other members of the office, might be able to contribute. In regard to your enquiry about recording the meeting, we do not have access to any professional recording facilities nor, as a matter of routine, produce transcripts of events (which can be costly to produce and little used). You might want to explore options such as recording the event on a mobile phone. We could, if helpful, offer to produce a high-level note of any action points identified at the event. I hope I have covered all the points in your email, but would be happy to discuss further if it would be helpful to have a telephone conversation in the near future. Gavin Rogers Communications and Engagement Manager From: "Rogers, Gavin" <mailto:************************ >
Subject: RE: Whistleblower-led event Date: 29 January 2018 at 09:44:15 GMT To: "Minh Alexander <mailto: ************************> Clare Sardari <mailto:**********************>" Ms Sardari and Dr Alexander, Please find attached a letter in response to your email below, our Social Media Handbook and a list of the members of the Advisory Working Group as requested. Kind regards Gavin Rogers From: Brown, Jerina On Behalf Of Hughes, Henrietta Sent: 21 December 2017 09:34 To: Rogers, Gavin Subject: FW: Whistleblower-led event From: Minh Alexander [mailto:*********************] Sent: 20 December 2017 13:54 To: Hughes, Henrietta Cc: Clare Sardari Subject: Whistleblower-led event BY EMAIL Dr Henrietta Hughes National Freedom To Speak Up Guardian Care Quality Commission 20 December 2017
Dear Dr Hughes, Whistleblower-led event Thank you again for agreeing to consider our suggestion that whistleblowers lead an event. We have given some thought to this since the meeting on 3 November and would like to suggest the following: 1. We would like to lead an event on a core issue around which there is whistleblower consensus: The need to wholly reform UK whistleblowing law. 2. The event should ideally span late morning and mid-afternoon (eg 11am to 3pm), to increase the chances of those invited being able to fully participate, as this would allow time for those coming from outside of London comfortable time for travel. 3. Thank you for booking the CQC room for the 16 March, but we suggest a later date (May) to allow time for preparations, and also so that we may have the optimum time slot as described. 4. We are making enquiries but it is likely that we will be able to source recognised expert speakers at no or minimal cost. 5. We would to make maximum use of time by surveying participants and analysing the data gathered beforehand, to help inform discussion at the event and facilitate small group work. 6. As the venue is of limited size, this will limit numbers but we hope to involve the wider whistleblower community by collating brief case
vignette data on the range of experiences that people have had with the Public Interest Disclosure Act. We would aim to use this material to inform discussion the event, and would be grateful if you would publish an electronic copy of the collated data on your website. We will take responsibility for ensuring that the content is concise and focussed on specific difficulties with the legislation, and suitable for publication. 7. We would be grateful for your assistance in sending out invitations. We will take responsibility for producing the programme flyer and invitations, but it would be helpful if they could be issued under your auspices, to help increase the likelihood of participation. 8. We would be grateful for technical assistance with recording the proceedings on the day (at least of the formal presentations by expert speakers) and transcription of the recordings. And with distribution and publication of the resultant event pack that we hope to produce. Yours sincerely, Clare Sardari Dr Minh Alexander From: Brown, Jerina" <**************************> Subject: HOSTING A WHISTLEBLOWING EVENT Date: 13 December 2017 at 15:43:50 GMT To: Minh Alexander <mailto:***********************> Clare Sardari <mailto: *********************> You will have been notified that the next Advisory Working Group will take place on the 16 March in the afternoon. You mentioned at the last meeting you would like to host your own event. If you still wished to do this I have reserved our Board Room for the entire day to accommodate our meeting in the afternoon with the morning on hold for your event should you wish to go ahead. I attach a meeting form template for your to complete if you would still like to hold an event.
Kind regards Jerina